It has long been known, in the photographic field, that packaging film cartridges has numerous advantages over conventional reels or cassette-packaged film, both in loading and processing. Thus, with cartridge film, the cartridge is loaded by simply dropping the cartridge into the camera, whereas with cassette or reel type film, it is necessary to securely attach the leading edge of the film to the windup spool and to thread the film into the camera. Furthermore, film cartridges can be removed and replaced at any time, even when partially exposed, whereas reel and cassette film cannot. Therefore, cartridge film has been widely accepted. On the other hand, conventional film cartridges are loaded with film at the film manufacturer and, in order to process the film, the cartridge must be broken to remove the film, leaving the fragments of the cartridge to be discarded. However, with current interest in environmental protection and concern over disposition of the vast amounts of waste which mankind is continuously creating, it is highly desirable to minimize or eliminate the waste produced by the film cartridge fragments. One step toward reduction of such waste is found in my prior patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,111, issued Dec. 12, 1989, which discloses a film cartridge which is formed of a plurality of interchangeable parts which can be recombined for reuse as other film cartridges. This is a considerable step toward reducing waste from film cartridge fragments. Nevertheless, it is believed that further progress toward waste reduction is needed. Thus, none of the prior art film cartridges have been entirely satisfactory.